KUALA LUMPUR – Dewan Negara Deputy Speaker Datuk Seri Mohamad Ali Mohamad has cautioned that Malaysia should continue to protest against China’s act of encroaching into Malaysian waters.
He said China’s continued presence in the South China Sea has indirectly affected the livelihood of local fishermen, due to their fishermen also sourcing for seafood supplies near Malaysia.
“China’s presence has resulted in conflict, and its increased security has made it easy for their fishermen to start fishing here.
“This has caused the local seafood source to rapidly deplete and is now affecting our own fishermen, as well as local seafood consumption,” he said.
Ali said scientists believe the fishing industry will collapse from the current rate of fishing, so Malaysia needs to be firm in its actions to end this before it is too late.
He said the federal government also needs to secure its oil fields to avert a negative impact on the economy, if China continues to assert its authority over the South China Sea.
“Our oil platforms are in the area. They are owned by Petronas and if the matter is not addressed, the country’s economic growth that relies on oil and gas resources will be affected.
“Putrajaya must make a firm stand and continuously protest these encroachments by China,” he said.
Meanwhile, Senator Datuk Mohd Hisamudin Yahaya urged Putrajaya to increase surveillance and assets to the national borders as a security measure.
“Without this, we will not know what is happening. This year alone, China jet fighters had been spotted in Malaysian airspace. We would not have known this, if not for the radar system stationed in Sabah,” he said.
Hisamudin said other nations would have jointly intercepted China jet fighters from entering their airspace.
“We must be ever ready for (all sorts of) eventualities, and we must act now. We must be prepared. There is no time to allow our home, Malaysia, to be the place for superpowers to start a proxy war,” he said.
Hisamudin said Malaysia should not forget the nine-dash-line and The Hague’s denial of China’s claim over it.
“There is no legal basis for China to make a historical claim over this area...the international community has denied China from these disputed waters,” he said. – The Vibes, November 5, 2021
